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Timeline for Confucius His Life and Legacy in Art Exhibition Related Resources
To fully appreciate historical temporality from a Confucian perspective, one should be prepared
to engage Chinese principles of recording historical time based on dynastic cycles rather than the
Gregorian calendar system used universally today and designated by BCE (Before Common Era)
and CE (Common Era). While not entirely free of contested dating, the Chinese historical
records were meticulously kept and carefully reconstructed throughout history. Archaeological
finds continue to fill out a more complete understanding of very early times, but starting from the
Zhou Dynasty, there is extremely reputable scholarship that provides very precise historical
dating of events before and during ConIucius` liIetime. This timeline is provided to help
contextualize major periods and speciIic events that are signiIicant to ConIucius` liIe.

Before 2070 BCE Legendary time of the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors.
c. 2070 -1600 BCE Legendary Xia Dynasty a proto-dynasty that left no written records, but
whose existence is attested to by early Chinese thinkers and whose ancestors
the Shang acknowledge in their later divinatory bone inscriptions.
c. 1600 1045 BCE Shang Dynasty a line of 29 kings (wang) who rule for around 500 years
over a small but strategically important state situated in the central plains.
Important contributions to the development of Chinese civilization include a
calendar based on astronomical observation; a hierarchical society codified in
a system of rites in which the king assumes the role of intermediary between
the living and the dead, or between heaven and earth; development of bronze
technology geared to manufacturing ceremonial artifacts; and the development
of a written language.
c. 1045 771 BCE Western Zhou Dynasty succeeding the Shang, the Zhou people adopted and
then modified Shang practices in ancestor worship, patrilineal succession, bone
divination, and social stratification. A people residing in the Wei River valley
(in an area around present day Xi`an), the king takes a reign-name of Wen
(cultured`) who begins attacking a number oI small Shang vassal states. AIter
King Wen`s death c. 1053 BCE, his son, King Wu (martial`) resumes wars
against the Shang and engages the Shang army at the decisive battle at Muye
outside the Shang Court of Anyang in 1045 BCE, thus founding the Zhou
Dynasty.
c. 1043 BCE Zhou King Wu dies setting off a concession crisis.
King Wu`s younger brother, Zhou Gong Dan (aka The Duke oI Zhou),
has his young nephew King Cheng enthroned and becomes regent to
the King. The Duke`s other brothers (and the overthrown Shang king`s
surviving son) join forces and attempt to overthrow the patrilineal line
of succession. They are defeated in the civil war that follows and
surrounding polities are drawn into the conflict resulting in an
expansion of territory under Zhou authority. Loyal Zhou princes are
rewarded with state-sized fiefdoms creating a large federation of states
pledging loyalty to the Zhou king; the cohesion of these feudal-like
states will dissipate over time.
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771 BCE The Quan Rong (a northern barbarian` tribe oI nomadic
people) sack the capital of Zongzhou (in the west near modern day
Xi`an) and Iorce the Court oI Zhou to be reconstituted at Chengzhou
(in the east near modern day Luoyang).
771 256 BCE Eastern Zhou Dynasty the Zhou court is significantly weakened and China
becomes a land of contending small states run by hegemons who nominally
pledge loyalty to the Zhou court but are guided by self-interest and
opportunism to increase their territory. While politically a very chaotic time, it
is also marked by a cultural and technological flourishing. China`s first canal
systems, its first large-scale walls, and large-scale irrigation projects date from
this period. It is also a period of great intellectual activity known for the
Hundred Schools oI Thought` (including, oI course, ConIucianism), a name
for the numerous political, social, and cosmological theories that proliferated
during this period.
722 476 BCE Spring and Autumn Period, a further division of the
Eastern Zhou period; the name derives from The Spring and Autumn
Annals, a chronicle of events in the state of Lu sometimes ascribed to
Confucius.
551 BCE birth of Confucius at Mount Ni, located southeast of Qufu
in Lu state (in present-day Shandong province), traditionally accepted
as being on September 28.

549 BCE When Confucius is three years old, his father dies.
535 BCE ConIucius` mother dies when he is the age of 16 or 17
(other sources give this date as 527 BCE, when he was 23 or 24 years
old).
533 BCE At the age of 19, Confucius marries a woman from the
Qiguan family of the Song state. Around this time, he gained
employment as manager of the state granary.
532 BCE Birth of ConIucius` son who is named Li (Carp) aIter Duke
Zhao of Lu sent a carp as a gift. Around this time Confucius was
promoted to state husbandry manager.
522 BCE Around this time Confucius starts a private school and
began to teach.
518 BCE Confucius accepts Meng Yizi and Nangong Jinshu as
disciples; Jinshu arranges for Confucius to travel to Luoyang, the Zhou
capital, where he is attributed as meeting Laozi.
514 BCE After conflict breaks out in Lu state, Confucius is forced to
relocate briefly to the state of Qi.

516 BCE Confucius returns to Lu.
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501 BCE Confucius became the chief magistrate of Zhongdu,
present-day Wenshang county in Shandong Province.
500 BCE Confucius becomes minister of justice and distinguishes
himself at the conference between Lu and Qi at Jiagu.
497 BCE Confucius leaves the state of Lu and heads east to Wei
state, beginning his sojourns in several states to promote his ideas.
484 BCE Confucius returned to his hometown, Qufu, in the state of
Lu and focused on teaching and studying the Rites of Zhou.

479 BCE Death of Confucius at the age of 72 or 73.
475 221 BCE Warring States Period, a further layer of periodization
within the Eastern Zhou Dynasty marked by large-scale intense warfare
made possible by administrative reforms designed to maximize individual
states` ability to raise armies.
221 - 206 BCE Qin Dynasty the western state of Qin eventually defeats and occupies all
other states and King Zheng succeeds in unifying the territory and proclaims
himself Shihuangdi, or First Emperor.` The empire adopts draconian legalist
administration and is attributed with burning Confucian texts and killing
Confucian scholars. At the same time, the Qin Dynasty unifies weights and
measurements, promulgates a standard written script, as well as a standard
monetary system. Nevertheless, the state is very unpopular and is overthrown
by forces only fifteen years after its founding.
206 BCE 9 CE Western Han Dynasty in 207 BCE, Liu Bang, a minor official of peasant
stock (and one-time outlaw) creates a sizeable following and joins forces with
an anti-Qin army led by Xiang Yu, an aristocrat from the former state of Chu.
After jointly defeating and killing off the Qin royal family, the combined
forces split and a power struggle ensues. Liu Bang eventually wins out and is
enthroned as Emperor Gaodi of the Han Dynasty. The historian Sima Qian
wrote oI Liu Bang, '|he| removed the harsh corners oI the Qin code and
retreated to an easy roundness, whittled away the embellishments and achieved
simplicity. It is during the Western Han Dynasty that Confucian values are
increasingly promoted by the state, evidenced by the court-sponsored study
group to furnish acceptable versions of the five prescribed classics in 136 BCE
(The Book of Documents, The Book of Songs, The Book of Changes, The
Spring and Autumn Annals, and The Book of Rites).